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Swiatek had beaten Sabalenka 6-3 6-4 to win the
Stuttgart Open at the end of April, gearing up for her French
Open title defence later in May.
The Pole marched into her maiden final in Madrid in a clinical
display against the 12th seed Kudermetova, improving her
head-to-head record against the Russian to 4-0.
Earlier on Thursday, Sabalenka brushed past Maria Sakkari 6-4
6-1 as their ninth meeting on tour and first on clay ended with
the 24-year-old Belarusian extending her win-loss record over
the Greek ninth seed to 6-3.
Sabalenka, who was champion in Madrid in 2021, stayed on track
for her second title of the season in style after winning the
Australian Open in January.
She won an impressive 70.7% of her first serve points and saved
five of six break points while sending down four aces against
Sakkari.
It will be the third time in the last 40 years that the world
top two will meet twice in the same season on clay after Serena
Williams and Maria Sharapova in 2013, and Martina Navratilova
and Chris Evert back in 1984.
TSITSIPAS KNOCKED OUT
In men's singles, world number five Stefanos Tsitsipas crashed
out following a 7-6(5) 5-7 6-3 defeat by Germany's lucky loser
Jan-Lennard Struff in the quarter-finals.
In-form Struff will next face qualifier Aslan Karatsev on Friday
as both reached their first Masters 1000 semi-final, the Russian
doing so by beating China's Zhang Zhizhen 7-6(3) 6-4 earlier on
Thursday.
In the other semi-final, world number two Carlos Alcaraz will be
looking to celebrate his 20th birthday with a win against
Croatian 17th seed Borna Coric.
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru and Anita
Kobylinska in Gdansk; editing by Pritha Sarkar and Stephen
Coates)
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